Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic is rumoured to be on the radar of Premier League duo Liverpool and Manchester United as well as Bayern Munich, amid suggestions he could seek a transfer away from Stamford Bridge this summer.
Pulisic has only shown flashes of his best form since a £58m transfer to Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund was completed in 2019 and is yet to start in the Premier League or Champions League under new Blues boss Thomas Tuchel, despite previously working under him in Germany.
Injuries haven’t helped Pulisic fulfil his vast potential, but he was starting regularly during Frank Lampard’s final two months in charge and was unable to lift a struggling Chelsea team.
Tuchel has almost been apologetic over leaving Pulisic out of his starting lineups other than against Barnsley in the FA Cup and even suggested it was ‘unfair’ of him to overlook Pulisic for Monday night’s Premier League win over Everton.
The Daily Mail claims that Manchester United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are keeping an eye on the situation, with the suggestion that a summer exit from Chelsea is the ‘likely’ scenario for Pulisic because he may not have the patience to prove himself at the club a second time.
Pulisic had spells in and out of the Chelsea team under Lampard last season and was actually benched for a period just a few games into a slow start to the campaign.
The American later scored a flurry of goals that started with a hat-trick against Burnley, only for his form to dessert him and injury to put his season on hold until ‘Project Restart’. By the time he returned to fitness, Pulisic was in outstanding form, contributing eight goals or assists in the final nine games of the Premier League campaign to ensure Chelsea finished in the top four.
However, he has found it tough to repeat that form in 2020/21 and, at the age of just 22, it may be that a fresh challenge will be what gets his career back on track.
Manchester United and Liverpool will both be in the market for attacking talent this summer. United’s primary target remains Jadon Sancho, the player who squeezed Pulisic out of the Dortmund team in 2018/19, but there are no guarantees of his arrival and the Old Trafford club will be arming themselves with a considerable shortlist to cover other bases.
Liverpool, meanwhile, desperately need attacking depth after an injury to Diogo Jota this season has highlighted a real dearth in quality behind Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
Bayern Munich will be well aware of Pulisic’s qualities from his time in the Bundesliga and are no strangers to mopping up young talent with long-term potential.
“Pulisic, to me, is the next world star in the Premier League. You saw glimpses of it pre-lockdown and glimpses when he played an international game at Wembley two years ago,” Gary Neville told 90min before the current season started back in September.
“But I watched him three or four times in the games after lockdown and that was a different level. That is starting to do things on a pitch that Real Madrid and Barcelona would be looking at, thinking, ‘We need him’, like they have done with [Eden] Hazard and other players in the past.”
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Source : 90min